Shopping bag



Aug. 26, 1952 w 2,668,227

SHOPPING BAG Filed Nov. 22. 1949 IN VEN TOR.

Fay A-W/Tf BY 4 TOE/V575 Patented Aug. 26, 1952 UNITED sTAras ATN orrice SHOPPING BAG Roy A. Witt, Minneapolis, Minn., assignor to C. F. Witt Sons, Minneapolis, Minn., a partnership Application November 22, 1949, Serial No. 128,845

1 Claim.

in the retailgrocery trade of self-serve, or semiself-serve storeswherein the customer selects the articles of purchase directly from the shelves, or

partially with the aid of clerical help, but wherein these articles are all transported by the customer to a cashiers desk adjacent the exit of the establishment. To aid customers in collecting and transporting their purchases within the establishment, it has been customary to provide some convenient-means of transporting the articles. In general it has been the practice to provide shopping carts for this purpose. A supply of carts is maintained adjacent the entrance of the establishment for use by the customers and these carts are surrendered at the exit when the articles are packed in containers suitable to be carried out of the store. The use of carts in metropolitan stores and. particularly during rush hours, frequently creates a traffic problem which is bothersome to customers and management alike, because of the delays and inconvenience when the aisles are crowded Moreover, many persons who intended to only make a limited number of purchases find the carts too cumbersome, but still need some convenient means of carrying the limited number of articles which they purchase.

To meet the needs of this latter group of people, I'have provided a form of shopping bag which is suitable for carrying a limited number of purchases and which materially reduces the traffic problem created by shopping carts. Bags which are intended for this purpose must meet two requirements in order to be suitable for this type of use. They must be convenient to the customers and they must have practical features permitting storage in such a manner as to invite their use by customers and also to'restrict the space which they occupy when not used. Considering the second of these features, the bags should be constructed so that they can be conveniently stacked to minimize storage space and at the same time invite their use by customers. To this extent they should have an open topped pouchlike shape and they should be so constructed or reinforced to maintain the open topped feature.

Secondly, the bags should be so constructed that they can be conveniently carried and used by the customers with a minimum of effort. Byp-ractical experience I have found that some persons prefer to use a shoulder type shopping bag because this gives freedom to the hands, while others, for various reasons, prefer a bag which they can carry directly in one hand.

An object of the invention is to provide shopping bags or pouches which can be easily stored by nesting and which when in use can be comfortably carried by customers.

A further object is to provide a shopping bag or pouch having a manual carrying means, in which the pouch is constructed with the center of gravity towards the rear of the pouch and the manual carrying means are connected with the pouch in rear of the center of gravity so as to hold the pouch at the side of the carrier and Without a pendular swinging action.

Other and further objects may become apparent from the following description and claims and in the appended drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a shopping bag with certain portions broken away; I

' Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 22 of Fig. 1; I

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the shopping bag; and

Fig. 4 shows a stack of shopping bags, which emphasizes an important feature of the invention.

Referring to the several figures of the drawing, the invention will be described in detail. General reference numeral 5 indicates a shopping bag consisting of a pouch portion 6 formed of a bottom wall 1 whose rear edge, as shown in Fig, 3, is formed in a receding curve 7a. A single panel 8 having a receding curve 8a forms a back wall of the pouch, and a single strip 9 forms a front wall l0 and end walls II and I2. The strip 9 is joined by a row of stitches I3 and Hi to the lateral edges of the back 8, as seen in Fig. 3, and by a row of stitches I5 to the bottom 1, as seen in Fig. 2. A row of stitches I6 joins the lower edge of back 8 to the bottom I, as shown in Fig. 2.

As will be clearly evident in Fig. 2, the pouch 6 is of tapered construction in that terminal edges of the end walls I l and I2 taper inwardly as they extend from the top edge of the pouch to the bottom wall 1.

As is evident in Figs. 1 and 2, the rear Wall 8 is formed with a slotted opening [1, and secured on the inner surface of the wall 8 by stitches I8 s a reinforcing piece l9 which has a slotted openmg 20 of the same size and dimension as opening 3 l1 and which cooperates with opening IT to form a hand grip or handle 2 l A shoulder strap 22 is secured at its opposite ends to the end walls H and [2 by stitches 23 and rivets 24. The area of attachment of the opposite ends of the shoulder strap are relatively close to the back wall 8 so that when the bag is carried either by the shoulder strap 22 or the hand grip 2|, the back wall 8 tends to take a perpendicular position and cause the pouch to tip slightly outwardly.

In a practical form, the pouch may be made of relatively stiff leather such as cowhide or of any other relatively stiff material.

space when not in use, and this is accomplished by nesting, as indicated at 6, 6a and 6b in Fig. 4. In order to accomplish the nesting and maintain the fully open top feature, the total area of the bottom wall 1 is less than the area of th upper open end of the pouch, and each of the side walls taper outwardly from the bottom wall to the upper open end of the pouch.

To facilitate carrying the pouch either by the shoulder strap l2 or the hand grip 2|, the rear I wall 8 inclines away from the bottom wall 1 so that the center of gravity within the pouch is in rear of the center of the bottom wall 1. The earrying means 2| or '22 are also in rear of the center of gravity and extend at an obtuse angle to the bottom wall 1. The effect of the angular'relationship of the ends of the shoulder strap to the upper extremity of the side walls is that when the pouch is shoulder carried, the rear wall 8 assumes a substantiallyv'ertical position along the side of the body of the carrier, and the pouch clo'sely adheres to 'the body of the carrier without rubbing against the clothes and without pendular movement.

In practice, on entering the store, customers will select a shopping bag from a stack such as issh'own in Fig. 4, which would normallybe located near the entrance. -A large number of people prefer to carry the bag by engaging the shoulder strap on a shoulder so that the bag It is essential that the bags or pouches occupy a minimum even when the pouch is carried by the hand grip, the curvature in the rear wall of the pouch still facilitates carrying for the same reason that the pouch partially conforms to the figure.

The advantages of the invention reside in providing a shopping bag which has proven popular to both customers and the business establishment in that it provides a simple, convenient container for a limited number of purchased articles, and one which materially reduces the traffic problem created by the use of shopping carts.

My invention is defined in the terms of the appended claim,

I claim:

An open topped shopping pouch, consisting of a bottom wall having parallel opposing end edges and front and rear edges, the rear edge of the bottom wall formed in a receding curve, means forming front and end walls secured to the front and end edges of the bottom wal1 and tapering outwardly from the bottom to the upper open end of the pouch to permit nesting of one pouch within another, the rear edges of the end walls sloping outwardly from the bottom wall to points which are substantially beyond the rear limits of the bottom wall, an inwardly curving rearwall secured at its lower edge to the receding curve of the rear edge of the bottom wall and also secured at its lateral extremities to the outwardly sloping rea-r edges of the end walls to form a curved body conforming surface on the rear of the pouch which extends at an obtuse angle from the bottom wall to dispose the center of gravity within the pouch in rear of the center of the bottom wall, and a shoulder strap having its opposite ends rigidly secured to the upper extremities of the end walls and extending angularly in the direction of the rear wall whereby when the pouch is shoulder carried the curved rear wall assumes a substantially vertical plane and adheres to the side of the carrier to prevent pendular movement of the pouch.

ROY A. W-ITT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 876,038 Bryan et al J anx7, 1908 1,368,774 Votruba Feb. 15, 1921 1,470,334 Stensgaard et al Oct. 9, 1923 1,649;976 Pomeranz Nov. 22, 1927 

